French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese and Spinach
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30-minute recipe: A healthy French lentil salad with a tangy Dijon dressing. This delicious make-ahead recipe is perfect to serve warm or at room temperature.
I don’t know why lentils are so overlooked.
Maybe it’s because of their humble, earthy color and unfortunate relationship to stodgy vegetarian cooking from the last century.
If lentils have gone out of favor in your life for whatever reason, this tasty French green lentil salad will convince you to bring them back into regular rotation.
What are French lentils?
French lentils, sometimes called Le Puy or lentilles du puy, are a mainstay in my pantry right next to chickpeas.
These tiny legumes have a beautiful slate-green color and are sooo great to keep on hand for to add to spur-of-the-moment salads, soups and side dishes.
They have deep, nutty flavor and cook surprisingly quickly, in about 20 minutes.
And like most lentils, they’re loaded with nutritious iron, fiber and protein.
Compared to regular green or brown lentils, which can be starchier and cook to more of a mushy puree, French lentils become tender but keep their shape after cooking.
That makes them a perfect addition to healthy salads like this one.
Where to buy French lentils
Buy French lentils online or find them at many large supermarkets.
While some cooks swear by the distinct flavor of true French Le Puy lentils (which are actually grown in the volcanic soil of Puy in France), you can find the same variety of lentils grown right here in the U.S.A — just as delicious and not quite as spendy as imported ones.
How to cook French lentils
Score another beauty point for these lovely little lentils because unlike other legumes, they don’t need soaking.
Just cook French lentils in water and they’ll be done within 25 minutes.
For this recipe, the lentils cook with aromatic bay leaf and thyme sprigs for additional flavor.
Tossing the lentils with the lemony dressing while they’re warm ensures they’ll soak up every drop and taste fantastic!
More Quick Healthy Salad Recipes:
- Harvest Root Vegetable Salad with Chimichurri
- Toasted Orzo Salad with Asparagus, Lemon and Chickpeas
- Herbs de Provence Dijon Chicken Pasta Salad
French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese and Spinach
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salad:
- 2 cups French green lentils, rinsed
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 large thyme sprigs
- Kosher salt
- 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
- 2 – 3 cups baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup crumbled soft goat cheese or feta cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts, optional
Instructions
- Make the dressing: Combine the shallot, vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and black pepper to taste in a bowl. Let sit 5 minutes to dissolve the salt, then whisk in the olive oil until blended.
- Put the lentils, bay leaf and thyme sprigs in a 4-6 quart pot along with 2 teaspoons salt and 6 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook 15 minutes.
- Add the carrots, celery and onion to the lentils and continue cooking 5 – 10 minutes, until the lentils are tender. They will have absorbed most, but not all of the liquid.
- Drain the lentils and transfer back to the pot or to a serving bowl. Pluck out the bay leaf and thyme sprigs and discard. Pour the dressing over and stir to coat. Add the parsley and spinach and stir through.
- Sprinkle the cheese and walnuts over the salad and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Serve the salad warm or at room temperature. It keeps beautifully refrigerated for a day or two – just bring to room temperature before serving for the best flavor.
- Omit the cheese to make this a vegan salad.
Nutrition
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about making cooking fun and doable, with easy to follow tested recipes and incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
Love the recipe. Not sure where the nutritional info came from. A 1g serving size would be very very small, so I’m pretty sure it’s not what was intended 😀
Puys lentils are truly one of nature’s wonders. Good balance of ingredients. Used fresh thyme springs from my garden to give it an extra artisanal flair.
My husband and I both LOVED this recipe! So easy and so flavorful. I really like that the carrots, celery and onions are cooked with the lentils, and that it’s severed warm (or room temp). And the dressing complements the goat cheese perfectly. We’ll be making this one again before long 🙂
SOOO glad to know that!
Karen – Just discovered your blog via homies. Your photos are beautiful. Love what you are doing!!
It appears many of us are suffering from too much white…I’m looking forward to green shoots but three feet of snow has to melt first. I agree with you about green lentils. I like adding a little orzo sometimes when I cook them.
Karen, orzo is a fave at my house too. I toast it sometimes before cooking – yum. We saw a little melting this week – yay! But back to Arctic freeze this week it seems..
I like the idea of lentils being a comfort food 🙂
The green lentils are so pretty, I love the sound of this comforting side dish!
Many thanks, Laura!
I may have to make up a batch of these for dinner very soon! I love how simple these are–clearly they’d be perfect alongside so many other dishes.
Eileen, yes lentils are simple and comforting. Just what’s needed about now. They would be great alongside anything!
I love lentils! I can certainly believe that you nust be having a bit of culture shock with the dreadful weather you have had to endure. Take heart! Spring will be here soon! In the mean time, enjoy the lentils. They look wonderful.
Thank you Adri – I cannot wait to see green things again!